Ahmad Smith's play on 4th and long, final four, was legendary. I can't wait for the video. Last play kickoff. 28-28. Michael Irving tells Smith to make a play on defensive special teams. He causes a fumble that leads to the winning touchdown with zero time on the clock. I can't even imagine that it was real. Was it fake?

Bettis-time. 1st down to the 1. 2nd down to the 1. The next play is gonna be big.

Rothlistberger takes the ball himself on the 3rd down, follows the RBs and is nailed at the goalline. It's called a TD, but the replay indicates it was so close that any call is pretty much going to create a lot of talk. Touchdown on review!!! 7-3 Steelers.

The Seahawk receivers have caught three passes out-of-bounds that could've been caught in bounds. That's the difference. They are ruled incompletions. Remember that when you look at Hasselbeck's stats.

3rd Quarter

Parker blows the 2nd play of the half for 70+ yards. 14-3 Steelers.

As much as I hate Bell, their CDNian Super Bowl commercial was awesome! Beavers. Canada.

Two 50-yrd misses today by the Seahawk kicker.

Steelers inside the Seahawk 10, interception turned the other way. Big play. That's the play of the game, if the Seahawks win.

Seahawks have looked confused this quarter.

TD Seahawks. 14-10. Seahawks elected not to go for 2-pts and make it a 3 pt game.

4th Quarter

There have been a lot of big plays by the Seahawks called back by penalties. Some of them have been disputable. You can call a penalty on almost play. Or every play that one team makes.

Wow! They just called a penalty on Hasselbeck. I don't see it. Anywhere. This reffing is big-time one sided for the Steelers. The announcers agreed. A horrible call.

A few plays later, Steelers score 21-10. This is called a ref job.

Another call in favor of the Steelers. This one is reviewable. The call should be overturned. If it's not overturned, then this is a major ref job. OK, it was overturned.

Hasselbeck played it safe at the end of the game and basically ran out-the-clock on his own.

Down to four team. Usually at this point in the season, one team would stand out from the rest as a clear favorite to win the Super Bowl. This is untrue this season. We have four team, we equal chances to with a slight edge to the home teams.

Sunday, Jan. 22

GAME

TIME

NETWORK

AFC -- Pittsburgh at Denver

3:00

CBS

NFC -- Carolina at Seattle

6:30

FOX

Let's start with the Broncos, who have looked awesome in their last two games against the Patriots and the Chargers, knocking both teams out of contention. But they are playing the Steelers, who in two playoff road games have held the Bengals and Colts, the two top offenses in the NFL to less than 20 points. Now, if you remember Roethlisberger injured his throwing hand in the 2nd half of the Colts game. That and home field advantage seem to be the only reason to pick the Broncos over the Steelers.

In the second game, we have the Seahawks who are likely the best team over the entire course of the season. In their one playoff game, they held a pathetic Redskins offense to 10 points in there win and their MVP running back, Shaun Alexander sustained a concussion. The Panthers on the other hand destroyed the Giants 23-0 in New York, then out offensed the best defensive team in the NFL, the Bears 29-21 in Chicago. The Bears lacking offense scored 3 touchdowns on 3 long drives in 4 consecutive possessions. There's reason to pick and not pick either team. Toss a coin, with a slight edge to the Seahawks, playing at home.

Went pretty much by the script. Can't blame the Jags. Their QB was banged up and they were playing a dynasty on their home turf.

Redskins v. Bucs

Neither offense showed up. The difference was that Redskin defense which was the best offense that game.

The Bucs offense moved the ball up and down the field only to throw two pics and fumble once. One interception was returned to the Bucs 6 yard-line (next play was a touchdown), the other interception sealed the game and the fumble was returned for a touchdown.

Panthers v. Giants

The first half was all Panthers' defense. The Giants were unable to move the ball significantly, but they played well enough to keep the game in reach; 7-0.

With 6 minutes left in the half, the Panthers had the ball deep in their zone. A stop here would put the Giants in great field position. The Panthers converted two 3rd and longs in a row, then fluked a punt recovery on route to a field goal; 10-0. That may have been the game.

Steelers v. Bengals

This game is a brute. Carson Palmer is already out and Kitna took over the game. He looks amazing.

The ball remained inside the Steeler 20-yrd line for 4 minutes. Every time the Steelers stopped the Bengals, they took a stupid penalty to give them another 1st down. That's 11 consecutive plays in the red zone before Kitna threw the touchdown. The Steelers are losing this game on dumb penalties.

The game (17-14 Bengals) may have just turned. A miss snap on a FG attempt and a 19 yard loss, following a 5 minutes Bengal drive. It did turn the game. 21-17 Steelers.